May 2012

I almost missed something important today. i was watching my twitter feed come through, when I noticed the @RunRockNRoll twitter handle was tweeting pretty heavily (something they only seem to do when a race is happening), when I looked closer I noticed they were using the #RNRSD hashtag. RNRSD = Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon = the San Diego Marathon is happening THIS weekend.

(hehe – that tweet made me laugh 🙂 )

Back in 2009 (on this very day), San Diego was my first marathon. Crazy to think that was 3 years ago, even crazier to think that I’ve done 6 more since then (If you would have told me around mile 20-something that I would go on to run 6 more marathons within 3 years, I would have said you were crazy).

I think people forget that, I wasn’t always a marathon runner. When I started this blog I didn’t know what a tech tee was, I ran in $25 “running shoes” that I bought on special from Sears, didn’t own a stop watch, and was training for my first 15k. I knew NOTHING about running besides the fact that putting one foot in front of the other would get me from point A to point B. I just ran. (You can read more about my running journey HERE).

I registered for my first marathon not even a month after I finished my first half marathon. The idea that I could even complete such a task first entered my mind when I volunteered at a Disney Marathon race, then an information session with Team in Training put me over the edge. I figured, why not?

Training with Team in Training for my first marathon was quite an experience. Since I was still fairly new to the Orlando area – and didn’t know anyone else training for a marathon at the same time – having a team to meet and run with was invaluable. I made great friends that helped push and inspire me when I needed it the most. Raising the funds was actually the hardest part of the whole process, but I had you guys and you were amazing at helping me reach my goal with online bake sales and overall amazing generosity and support. YOU were a big part of TNT team!

There’s something special about training for your first marathon that no other marathon can quite replicate. For me, there wasn’t any pressure for time goals yet, just the satisfaction of building endurance and reaching a new PDR week after week. Running 16, 18, or 20 miles for the first time is an adrendaline rush and knowing you can do that really has you starting to believe that you can run a full marathon too.

My first marathon will always be special. It was the race that Derek flew across the country to see me run (I didn’t prompt him on this – and we weren’t even officially dating at the time – so I knew he was going to be a keeper), it was the first race I ran with my friend Bobbi (we went on to run Chicago together in 2010), and it was the first time I ran more than 20 miles and lived to tell the tale.

Crossing that finish line was one of the most exciting and painful moments of my life (here’s a secret – the pain doesn’t go away when you stop running… it gets worse), but luckily the exciting parts outweighed the painful ones, otherwise I wouldn’t have kept signing up for these things. I believe that first finish was the moment my fate was sealed as a marathon addict. I had to go back for more!

So heres to three incredible years of marathon running and the dream of many, many more still to come. Thank you San Diego for firing the fuel of my marathon running love. 🙂

And a big GOOD LUCK to all the San Diego runners this weekend! Have a great race and just enjoy the ride. 🙂

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